The Perils of Automatic Email Signatures

I dislike boilerplate email signatures, although I do leave the “Sent from my iPhone” (or iPad) signature on to let people know that there’s a reason the email is brief.

When I compose an email that requires a signature block, the reason for the signature block will vary depending on the context. As I have a variety of roles, I have different signature blocks for each role.

What I do is have a TextExpander snippet (on Mac OSX or iOS) for each of those contextual roles, and then insert those manually into my email when required. And if its not required, I leave it out. When I used Windows, I would typically use ActiveWords to do the same thing (and more).

Communications (including email) should be mindful, not mindless. Put thought into all elements of your email, including the signature block.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Learn More)